ATLANTA — Dante Moore hugged Iapani Laloulu for a long time.

He didn’t let go for a while. One of the two has already announced he’ll return to Oregon next season. The other, Moore, said he hadn’t made a decision in the wake of the Ducks’ 56-22 Peach Bowl loss to No. 1 Indiana.

They were part of a performance in which the Ducks struggled to create from the first snap and failed to shut down an offensive juggernaut. Stymied by a handicapped run game, Moore turned the ball over three times and handed the Hoosiers a trio of scores. Oregon’s defense, meanwhile, struggled to find an answer for Fernando Mendoza and his connection with wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, and gave up 56 points as a result.

Jay Harris’s effort couldn’t completely jumpstart the run game, but the turnovers didn’t help

Noah Whittington confirmed postgame that he missed the Peach Bowl with an injury — asked if it was turf toe, he said, “Yeah, something like that.” The Ducks also lost Jordon Davison, which meant that their running back corps relied largely on Harris and Dierre Hill Jr. An ESPN report that defensive players Brayden Platt and Kilohana Haasenritter were also options in the backfield was released pregame; neither had a carry.

Harris, for what it’s worth, put in a strong effort. The Ducks bounced back from the opening-drive pick-six with a long offensive drive that featured 32 Harris yards and a Moore touchdown seam shot to Jamari Johnson.

After that, though, the Ducks’ run game sputtered. They finished with 117 sack-adjusted yards, but 71 of those came from a Hill burst. Without the run game that had fueled many of Oregon’s wins, Moore struggled to create and found himself missing open receivers. 

That indecision became turnovers. Moore lost one ball on a play where the ball knocked off Hill’s elbow — he took the blame, and said, “I gotta clear the midline better to make sure, when I’m going to throw, I don’t hit the running back in his elbow.” He put another ball on the ground when he double-clutched a throw and had it jarred loose. Both led to touchdowns for the Hoosiers.

“First things first, the quarterback has to protect the football,” Moore said. They have a great defense, great disguise and different looks, but you can’t win football games if you’re causing turnovers. Something of course I need to work at. It comes with just reps. But overall, I mean, the Indiana defense is great, defensive coordinator, but at the end of the day, we beat ourselves.”

Oregon still couldn’t deal with Elijah Sarratt, or Mendoza’s legs, and it meant they couldn’t get off the field

The Ducks couldn’t handle Sarratt, a big, physical receiver, in the first matchup. They’ve struggled with big receivers all year, too, from USC’s Ja’Kobi Lane to Washington’s Denzel Boston. In the rematch, Sarratt feasted on matchups and finished with a team-high 75 yards, seven catches and two touchdowns. He didn’t drop a ball, either.

His two scores came from close to the goal line — a two and a three-yard reception — and four of his seven receptions came on third down, where the Hoosiers were 11-14. Part of that, Dan Lanning recognized, was Mendoza’s legs.

“The guy makes the right decisions,” Lanning said. “You consistently see if he sees the right coverage, he takes the ball where it’s supposed to go, dictated by coverage. I think he did a great job again on the scrambles early. I thought we had him boxed up on the third down early in the game, which was critical and was able to scramble for a first down.”

One of Mendoza’s crucial scrambles came on third down inside his own 30-yard line. The Hoosiers were backed up in third-and-8, and Mendoza didn’t have an option he liked. Instead, he exited left and rushed for a 21-yard gain. That drive turned into a punt, but Indiana followed it up with four straight touchdowns.

It’s not the same type of scrambling threat that Oregon struggled to contain in Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr., for example, but it’s one that gets the yards when they’re necessary.

“When you’re able to have that kind of success on third down, you can’t get a stop on third down,” Lanning said. “That’s a lot of credit to (Mendoza), the job he does. He understands what he’s doing. He has great weapons to be able to take advantage of.”